14th November 2023 Writings
14th
Excerpt from: Changes in the Archipelago
“Not yet?” Snotlout asked.
“We haven’t had a closer look yet,” Astrid responded.
“Then why are we wasting time?” Snotlout asked.
“We’re not,” Hiccup said. “I wanted to round up everyone.”
“Right…”
Soon all of them were flying out to the ship.
“If is from Miklagard, we can totally take it,” Snotlout declared.
“No, we can’t,” Fishlegs objected.
“It would be foolhardy.”
Words: 62
Excerpt from: Lady Me’s Quandry
“Not Britain, nor the 20th or 21st Centuries,” she said to the TARDIS as she set a random course.
The TARDIS gave a sound as if she agreed with her. She then set the ship in motion.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive somewhere. “Let’s see,” Lady Me murmured as she switched on the Scanner.
Indeed, it wasn’t Britain, nor the 20th or 21st Centuries. “Faroe Islands, 19th Century,” she mused. It wasn’t very far off at all. She suspected that if she tried again, it would still be somewhere in Western Europe in the later part of the Second Millennium. Therefore she emerged from the ship into the dimly lit streets of Torshavn. Nothing looked to be out of the ordinary. ‘But then at this time I was already hiding out on the Street.’
Something soon happened.
Words: 140
Excerpt from: Spider Quinn
“Right…” Quinn considered. She also considered just quitting the Fashion Club and telling Sandi to leave. What Daria had said in Freemont about them solving crime together flashed through her mind. ‘Not yet, give her a chance.’ She breathed deeply, and pulled down the turtleneck, showing her, along with Stacy and Tiffany, the zit.
“Oh, I see,” Sandi said.
“So, I had to hide it,” Quinn said.
“Of course,” Sandi said.
“Quinn, I'm so happy you're still one of us,” Stacy said.
“Gosh, Stacy, what did you think?” Quinn asked.
“Really,” Tiffany added.
“Quinn's right, Stacy. Just because she was acting completely weird and not confiding in her dearest, most loyal friends is no reason to decide she'd finally given up her sad charade and revealed herself as a two-faced, little…” Sandi trailed off as Quinn gave an intense glare.
‘How long?’ Quinn wondered, again.
“Meeting ended,” Sandi said.
“6:57. The shortest yet,” Stacy responded.
Unknown to Quinn and the others, Daria had overheard Stacy saying ‘I'm so happy you're still one of us,’ as she had walked by. Therefore she called Jane about her suspicion.
“Come on, not even aliens would give the planet to the Fashion Club. You're getting paranoid,” Jane responded.
“I'm not talking about aliens. But there's something out there. Something stupid.”
“You get rattled too easily,” Jane responded, then changed her tone. “By the way, can you come over here right now? I'm really scared.”
“I see. And to what do I owe this mood swing?” Daria asked.
“It's Trent's song. You gotta listen and tell me if it's getting more cheerful.”
“Now who's paranoid?”
“Come on, I'll order a pizza. And don’t tell your mother where you’re going, I don’t want her getting all motherly.”
“Right away.”
Words: 293
Excerpt from: In the House of Tom Bombadil
“We heard news of you, and heard that you were wandering. We guessed that you’d come ere long down to the water: all paths lead that way, down to Withywindle. Old grey Willow-man, he’s a mighty singer; and it’s hard for little folk to escape his cunning mazes. But Tom had an errand there, that he dared not hinder.” He then sang a song of his errand and of how he had met Goldberry long ago.
Tom had fallen silent, but Frodo couldn’t resist asking one more question. “Tell us, Master, about the Willow-man. What is he? I have never heard of him before.”
“No, don’t!” Merry and Pippin said together.
“That is right,” Tom said. “Now is the time for resting. Some things are ill to hear while the world is in shadow. Sleep until the morning light, rest on the pillow!”
Words: 143
Total: 635
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Spotify LotR audiobook thoughts 2/?
The sheer absurdity of Tom Bombadil’s whole character never quite struck me until listening to it on audiobook.
*pitch meeting voice*
“So then they meet this guy named TOM BOMBADIL”
“Oh yeah? What’s his deal?”
“Oh he’s fricken NUTS sir! He sings nonsense and shows up just in time to keep Merry and Pippin from getting eaten by the evil sentient tree. Then he invites the Hobbits to his house and they find out that he’s an ageless being who isn’t affected by the Ring at ALL!”
“Oh wowwowwowwow. Wow. So do they ask him to join their quest? I mean, he must turn into a pretty important character if he can control the Ring.”
“Oh no, they leave him after two chapters and never talk to him again.”
“... What?”
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Tolkien Thoughts, 14 Year Old Niece Edition:
So, no one in my immediate family has any particular interest in Tolkien BUT I’ve been making some progress with a 14 year old niece who liked the movies and agreed to give the books a try. She’s here this week for the holiday and so I’ve got an honest to goodness family member in the house who can and will talk LOTR!
I absolutely love to hear her takes on things, both those where we agree and where we differ. So far, she has expressed the following opinions:
1. Book Aragorn “needs to take it down a notch on the whole heir of Elendil thing.” She vastly prefers Movie Aragorn, whose humility she respects.
2. Legolas was her favorite in the movies, and he’s doubly so now because “he had a lot more to say” in the books. She particularly seemed to enjoy Shit Talking Legolas who constantly reminds his friends how young they are and repeatedly rubbed it in everyone’s faces that he wasn’t afraid when they were all having a dark night of the soul at the Paths of the Dead. (She did not pick up Gigolas vibes on her own but enthusiastically endorses the concept now that she knows about it.)
3. She had absolutely no use for Tom Bombadil but, after hearing about Gigolas, she is now considering whether Gandalf and Tom might not be a good pair.
4. She read Sam and Frodo as a romantic relationship without any prompting from me or anyone else and was shocked to find out that not everyone reads it that way. She believes anyone her age would read them as queer by default.
5. She was bothered by the repeated idea that some men have better/higher blood than others, which really offends her as a concept. That kind of soured her on Gondor in particular (though she makes an exception for Faramir) since they’re the ones that are held up as the people with the best or noblest blood.
6. Tho she strongly disliked the setting of different categories of men in hierarchy against each other, she’s fully on board that the elves are better than everyone else. She also cannot understand why anyone is attracted to the dirty, sweaty humans when there are beautiful elves RIGHT THERE. (Obviously this is a point where my influence has fallen woefully short, as I can’t get enough of a dirty, sweaty human. I tried to convince her that she is missing out on some truly amazing dirty sweatiness:
But she can’t help it, she’s got Samwise Gamgee levels of elf worship.) She was interested to hear that Tolkien’s got another book that revolves much more around the elves and their doings, but she’s not sure she wants to read it if there are “elves behaving badly” in it because she wants to keep thinking of them as noble and enlightened and sad. I didn’t tell her about Fëanor as a result. Maybe when she’s 15…
So anyway, we’re doing great over here. She’ll be in town for 5 more days and I hope to get as much more out of her as she’ll tolerate in that time!
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Hey, have you guys ever noticed something about Tolkien's descriptions of women in Lord of the Rings?
"Then lightly she passed them and closing the door she turned her back to it, with her white arms spread out across it." - about Goldberry in 'The Old Forest' or 'In the House of Tom Bombadil' (I don't remember which offhand and I don't have my copy of the book to check)
"her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth" - about Arwen in 'Many Meetings'
"She lifted up her white arms, and spread out her hands towards the East in a gesture of rejection and denial." - about Galadriel in 'The Mirror of Galadriel'
For all three of these women (and potentially Éowyn too, I just can't find a passage confirming it right now) their skin color is described specifically by their arms. Which means that they have to be wearing gowns that expose their arms, either short sleeved or sleeveless. I think this is a very interesting design tidbit that's often overlooked by a lot of fanartists (myself included)
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